Road to Srinagar

So i am currently in Srinagar, Kashmir, and its drizzling (its not for nothing they liken the place to England), so i thought i would write another post.

The road here was an adventure, not overly comfortable, but interesting none the less. I arrived in Jammu in the morning, intending to visit the sights, stay the night, and make my way up to Srinagar the next day. But this is probably the least inviting city i have visited so far. No one was helpful, its ugly, and so i decided to head straight to Srinagar. Paid 500rs for a spot in a jeep, which was twice as expensive as the bus but promised to be twice as fast and comfortable. Not sure about the last two, but it wasn't a terrible journey, despite the drivers constant attempts to drive us over the cliffs. From Jammu, the road keeps winding up and up (for 8 hours) into the hills, via narrow switchbacks and, well, you have seen the types of roads in James Bond movies. Apart from these were shared with trucks, cars, buses, jeeps and army traffic. Speaking of which, there are army camps lining the road the whole way here, and the military presence is rather oppressive. I felt this most when descending into the Kashmir valley, where looking out of the window, it doesn't take long to see armed patrols walking through the villages and fields - looking like something out of a Vietnam war film. They really do have the attitude and appearance of an occupying force, with all of the soldiers being Hindu (or Sikh) while the local population is Muslim. Added to that is the fact that many of the locals look either Pakistani, or even Persian (i.e much more European looking), and certainly nothing like the population of the rest of India. The lingua franca (?) is Kashmiri, of Persian origin, despite English and Hindi being the official languages (so many of the signs here are in English, and the locals have a much higher level of English than much of India- although there is a trend amongst young guys here to try English and Australian accents, which is rather annoying).

Back to the drive anyway. The hills on the Jammu side of the mountains are heavily developed, and deforested, and terraced wheat farms going up almost to the top. I had initially thought the area reminding me of Wakayama in Japan, but this development ended that. Saw my first snow in India, as the peaks here are still blanketed in the stuff, and certainly gave a feeling of heading towards the Himalayas.

The big change comes after exiting the 2.5km tunnel, that breaks out into the Kashmir valley. One is greeted with a wide open plain, extensively farmed, and with little villages dotted around, with houses looking more alpine than Indian, and wooden mosques in the Persian model (1 minaret). There are blossoms everywhere, my first sight of them since the apple blossoms of Kazakhstan last year, and apparently cherry, apricot, walnut and almond grow here in profusion. I have also seen daffodils which were rather unexpected, and apparently a legacy of the British in the area (it was a separate state, and not part of the Raj, but very popular in the summer for British families to escape the heat of India)

There were so many entertaining road signs along the way, all in English, and I managed to write a few down. They were sponsored by the BRO - Boarders Road Organization - but i am not sure for what reason. Anyone actually driving wouldn't have been able to read them.

"Driving after Whiskey is Risky"
"If you have a wife, dont risk her life"
"Speed is like a knife - cut it"

I wish i had been able to record more of them!